SAS® Analytics: The ‘Secret Sauce’ for
Retail Success Today

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Successful retailers may not shout about it in their news release
headlines, but for more than three decades they’ve used the “secret
sauce” of SAS software, now including SAS®
for retail, to gain critical customer insights and unparalleled
operational efficiencies. With SAS, the leader in business
analytics software and services, these companies have transformed
themselves from yesterday’s neighborhood merchants to today’s agile
omnichannel retail giants.

Ann Taylor, dunnHumby, Family Dollar, Walmart, Gilt Groupe and Target
are members of this elite club of progressive retailers who successfully
weave analytics into daily operations to make better customer-oriented
decisions about optimizing merchandise assortments, display space and
the sizes they stock. It’s SAS Analytics that helps retailers realize a
level of precision that ultimately sells more merchandise and improves
profits.

Using a portfolio of SAS retail analytics – including high-performance
analytics - Family Dollar makes better decisions that build customer
loyalty and improve operational agility. “Now we can crunch through and
analyze huge levels of data on a daily basis and make changes in a much
shorter window,” said Scott Zucker, Vice President of Business Services
at Family Dollar, a discount mega-chain with 7,400 stores in 45 states.
“Working in collaboration with SAS on a big data issue we were facing,
we recently dropped a process that took 36 hours down to less than 45
minutes. That enables me to implement a promotion, and within one day I
could probably get a read on it. It changes my speed to market
dramatically so I can make changes midweek versus monthly. You can move
a lot faster. The difference between exceeding Wall Street expectations
and meeting Wall Street expectations is being able to see the trends in
advance, analyze the data and react quickly.”

Analytics makes dollars and sense for retailers

When a retailer uses all available data to better understand the
customer, it can create innovative sales programs, empower associates
and make better decisions. Those retailers that don’t take their data
seriously run the risk of being shoved onto the clearance rack.

“Innovation is rampant right now,” said Deborah Weinswig, Managing
Director, Retailing Team, Citi Investment Research & Analysis. “Amazon
is spending 56.2 percent of capital expenditures (after 2011
acquisitions) on technology to change the retail game. Retailers are now
looking at the next generation of technologies. Providers like SAS are
at the forefront of this trend. We believe retailers are eager to
implement the next generation of optimization systems given the strong
track record of optimization technology on their P&L.”

“Each retailer has a specific DNA – experience from its own transactions
married with unique assets like its executives’ insights,” said Diana
McHenry, Director of SAS Global Retail Marketing. “Customer analytics
from SAS form an unparalleled foundation that powers better results and
drives mobile, social and local initiatives to help retailers beat their
competition – whether that competition is in a building down the street
or on a smartphone in the customer’s hand.”